Home Ownership
Home Ownership – Buyers Guide
Introduction
This easy steps guide will help you through the process of home ownership. A lot of people are not aware that you can privately sell and believe you have to use an Estate Agent only. Once you have decided to buy a property, and an offer has been accepted, the vendor’s solicitor and your solicitor will complete the necessary legal work to exchange contracts, then the property is officially yours.
Estate Agency Contracts
- Sole Selling Rights
This means your Estate Agent is the only one with the right to sell your house.
- Sole Agency
This also means the Estate Agent is the only one with the right to sell your house but if you find a buyer privately, you won’t have to pay the Agent.
- Multi Agency
This means that you can choose several Estate Agents to market your house but you will only have to pay commission to the one who sells it.
- Ready, willing and able purchaser’ is a contract
If the Estate Agent finds you a buyer and you later withdraw from the sale, you still have to pay them.
Arrange your mortgage before you even start to look at properties for home ownership and calculate how much you can afford. This will include any savings that you will be putting towards the move and any loans such as a mortgage that you will be taking. For loans make sure you have authorisation in writing from the lender that they will allow you to borrow an agreed sum.
When working out how much money you require for your new home do not forget to include the following. 1. Price of the property. Do not forget that you require the deposit, which is usually 10% of the value of the property. This deposit is required up front before you can get a mortgage to give to the solicitor. 2. Mortgage selected package-holding fee. For example if you have selected a fixed mortgage the company usually asks for a holding fee, which can be anything from £100 to £1500 and is non refundable. 3. Conveyancing/ Solicitor fees. These are about £300 to £1000 and are the necessary legal work such as setting up your contract of exchange.
Removal Fees
You may require hiring vans to move your possessions to your new property. 5. Surveyors fee. About £400 however this depends on the level of detail you instruct the surveyor to carry out. 6. Stamp duty
Make an Offer for your new home
Once you have found a property you wish to purchase then your will need to make an offer either through the agent marketing the property or direct if the seller is selling privately without an agent. To ensure you are not over paying for the property we recommend you check the Land Registry website which list the prices of property they actually sold for. This information is direct from the Government Land Registry department and is recorded in order to calculate the stamp duty payable.
The Legal Process
The legal process involves the following people and will be where up front money is to be spent.
Conveyancer/ Solicitor
Mortgage company
Local council that the property falls under
Surveyor.
You are now required to contact your solicitor who will then carry out the legal work such as submitting a land search to the local council that the property is under.
Although your solicitor will contact your mortgage company, it is good to also contact them so they can inform you of the next steps. Depending on the mortgage company the next step is for a surveyor to view the property, which generally the mortgage company supply. You normally have to pay for this and sometimes costs are refundable once the sale is completed. If you have to do this yourself or wish to have a more detailed survey then try some of our partners at the end of the section. A Full Structural Survey provides much more detail and as a result will cost a lot more. If the survey reveals particular points that are not happy with you can either stop the property purchase process or go back to the vendor and re-negotiate accordingly. As the process proceeds you will require funds for the following items. 1. Conveyancer/ Solicitor fee 2. Deposit for property 3. Stamp duty 4. Surveyors fee. Usually assigned by the mortgage company and may be refunded once contracts have been exchanged. Once the solicitors on both the buyer and seller’s side have completed all the necessary legal work, a completion date will be agreed, where you and the seller will sign a contract which is a legally binding agreement. On the completion date the full amount minus any deposit, will be transferred from you to the seller and the home is now in your ownership.
